As Criticism Mounts, Venezuela Asks High Court to Revisit Power Grab

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A protest outside the Supreme Court in Caracas on Friday. Venezuelans have been thrust into a new round of political turbulence after the court seized power from the National Assembly.CreditAriana Cubillos/Associated Press

IQUITOS, Peru — The Venezuelan government asked the Supreme Court early Saturday to revisit its decision to seize power from the national legislature, as criticism mounted that the country was tilting toward dictatorship.

The request was issued after President Nicolás Maduro met with top security advisers, and his office said it had been made “to maintain constitutional stability.”

Earlier, Attorney General Luisa Ortega said that Wednesday’s Supreme Court ruling — transferring all of the National Assembly’s powers to the court, which is loyal to the president — marked “a rupture in the constitutional order.”

“We were able to achieve a social contract,” she said at a news conference. “We all participated in this Constitution.”

Ms. Ortega’s statement was a deep rebuke of Mr. Maduro from the highest ranks of his own leftist movement. At the meeting early Saturday morning, the president’s security advisers framed the court’s ruling as a “conflict between powers,” referring to the court and the legislature.

The court’s ruling, which found the National Assembly to be in contempt, followed more than a year of conflicts with the legislature, which is controlled by Mr. Maduro’s opponents.

The court, packed with judges loyal to Mr. Maduro, is seen as a rubber stamp for the president.

The ruling immediately generated condemnation within and outside Venezuela, with critics saying that the country had become a dictatorship in all but name. The Organization of American States, a regional diplomacy body, called it a “self-inflicted coup,” while the United States and other countries condemned the decision as eroding the country’s democracy.

Before Ms. Ortega’s remarks, Mr. Maduro had appeared to be digging in, arguing in an address on state television that Venezuela was still democratic.

“In Venezuela, the Constitution is in force, for social, economic and civil rights and for the power of the people,” he said. Venezuela, he added, has a strong “participatory democracy.”

He said that the only “rupture to the constitutional order” had taken place in 2002 when members of the opposition staged an unsuccessful coup against his predecessor, Hugo Chávez.

It remained to be seen what the Supreme Court would do, but the request for a review, which had the blessing of the president, appeared to open the door to dialing back at least some of its decision.

Political opposition leaders applauded Ms. Ortega’s remarks.

The opposition of the attorney general “is the opposition that causes dictatorships to crumble,” one legislator, Freddy Guevara, said in a recorded message.